Dead, frozen body fails to bring quick response

Friday

Jan 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2009 at 1:34 PM

DETROIT (AP) -- It took three calls to Detroit authorities over two days before they recovered the body of a man frozen in ice in the elevator shaft of a vacant warehouse, a newspaper reported yesterday.

DETROIT (AP) -- It took three calls to Detroit authorities over two days before they recovered the body of a man frozen in ice in the elevator shaft of a vacant warehouse, a newspaper reported yesterday.

A reporter for The Detroit News said the daily paper got a tip and found the body Tuesday in a former Detroit Public Schools warehouse.

The reporter called 911 Tuesday and told a female operator about the body, the newspaper said. It said a man returned the call to the newsroom about 20 minutes later and said the body would be retrieved.

But the next day, The News said that the body was still trapped in the ice. The reporter made two more calls to 911, one of which was disconnected, and a fire department employee arranged to meet the reporter and to get the body, the paper said.

Authorities used saws to extricate the body Wednesday afternoon, the Detroit Free Press and WDIV-TV said. Investigators said they think the body had been there for several months. The man's name and the cause of his death weren't known.

Meanwhile, a 67-year-old man was found frozen in his truck outside his Detroit-area home. Daniel Hayes Jr.'s body was found Tuesday by men looking for scrap metal. Police say Hayes might have been dead for two weeks. There was no sign of foul play.

He apparently had been living in his truck; police said his house had no heat or water.

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